Just by chance and sheer luck, my friends and I ran into Rep. Allen West as we were waiting for an elevator. He took some time to talk to us and we managed to get a picture with him! We also got to see Gingrich and his wife up close as they made their way through the hotel. Secret Service was all over us! He didn't stop to shake our hands, which was disappointing, but he was set to give a speech very shortly before that so I'm sure his mind was focused elsewhere?
I didn't get to meet Governor Romney or Rick Santorum face to face, but one of my friends actually bumped into Santorum when the former Senator was leaving the speaker sign-in area. I did get to see Marco Rubio and Governor Rick Scott, both of which are favorites of mine. Rubio especially. His speech was absolutely brilliant and full of passion.
We ran into Herman Cain, his bus, and his campaign manager. Remember the commercial with the older gentlemen that was smoking? It caused a big buzz on national television? I met him on my way out! We chatted for a short time. I also met one of the ladies from The Five as we were leaving for the night, but she didn't seem too thrilled to see us. Maybe it was a long day? I won't hold it against her.
On Saturday the events were kind of slow, so Clay Evans and I decided to take a trip downtown. He hadn't been to the heart of DC since 5th Grade, so I thought I'd treat him. On the metro I met with an older English gentlemen who played in some Chess championships in Boston. He gave me some article that he wrote (shameless self-promotion!) and I'll have to find his name. In any event, I took Clay to see the White House, the World War II memorial, The Lincoln Memorial, The Vietnam wall, and finally some exhibits in the American History Museum. He was very glad and quite excited about the whole thing. I knew he had really wanted to see some of the sights, and since it would be his last year in college Lord knows if he would ever have the time to do something like this again.
During the three day event we had to deal with Occupy DC protesters shouting outside of the hotel and blockading off the main entrance and then a side entrance on separate days. We were called racists, bigots, and 1%'ers. Some of them even broke into the hotel lobby during Romney's speech but the police and security very quickly got rid of them. I will say that the police were very professional and they kept order. There were perhaps 100-200 people protesting us when the crowd was at its largest, but it was very ineffective. There were at least 1,000 of us. I took some pictures. Some of us started dancing to their drum-circle music while the rest laughed. All in all it was a fun time.
There's something to be said for attending an event with a large number of people that you know, by and large, feel the same way about the problems facing this country as you do. People are friendly (mostly), respectful, fun, talkative, and I think everyone felt reasonably comfortable to strike up conversation. I know I did. I spoke with students from Ireland, Colorado, Indiana, Florida, just to name a few. I'm still trying to find them on Facebook! Haha.
It was a tremendously positive experience that I would do again in a heartbeat. Now, pictures!
